


if my heart was a house

by weatheredlaw



Series: the joyful duck [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 08:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12165420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: (you'd be home)or: views and vignettes from the joyful duck





	if my heart was a house

**Author's Note:**

> this is a little place to put little bits and bobs from the joyful duck 'verse. fluff and smooches and probably some smut will abound. (you definitely have to read the first part to understand these little bits) enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kravitz makes a decision. Taako figures things out.

_We all suffer but we recover_  
_Just to discover life where we all are_

 

* * *

 

When you were with someone like Taako, you had to be prepared for pretty much anything.

Kravitz learned this the hard way their second date, which took place at one in the morning at a sushi restaurant. The hangover he had the next morning could have put a racehorse out of commission, but he rolled over and Taako was snoring lightly in bed next to him.

So it was worth it, he figured. Even if he could barely stomach anything but toast all day.

“Cute _and_ sensitive,” Taako said, leaning forward at breakfast and kissing his cheek. “You're, like, the whole package or something aren't you?”

“And I don't even try.”

“Oh, I believe it.” And that's when Taako leaned in and kissed him, _really_ kissed him, for the first time. Kravitz felt his heart... _skip_ , and jump up into his throat. He felt everything tilt, everything tip forward and spill into his hands. He reached up and held Taako's face, held him _close_ , and kissed him back.

God, he could get _used_ to this.

Taako pulled back and grinned. “You like that?”

“Um.”

Taako laughed. “Yeah.” He leaned in to go for it again. “Yeah, I figured.”

 

* * *

 

Kravitz wasn't sure when it became as important as it did – probably the moment he realized that Taako didn't have an agenda and didn't have anything that he _wanted_ from him. It always seemed like the men Kravitz was involved with wanted something that he couldn't give them, wanted to _get_ something. He was never sure why it felt like that, never really know _what_ they wanted, but – when he was with Taako, there was just...never an expectation for anything except that they enjoy one another.

That...was it.

And besides all of that, it took them months to go to bed together. Months of Kravitz dropping hints and making ever so slightly lewd suggestions. Months of flirting, kissing him in places he thought Taako might like, _telling him_ , at one point, that he wanted to have sex –

“What's the rush?” Taako said. It was early in the morning, and he rolled over and tucked his head under Kravitz's chin.

“There...there isn't any. I just thought--”

“I'm not here for that,” Taako murmured. “I'm here for you.”

“Right.”

He looked up. “I mean, if you want it, we can do it--”

“No.” Kravitz looked down. “I don't want it unless you want it. Okay?”

For the first time since that day on the pier, Taako looked...disarmed. More than surprised. He pushed himself up onto his elbow, looking down and Kravitz, inspecting every inch of his face.

“...What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I just...I don't know how you do that?”

“Do what?”

Taako smiled and kissed Kravitz's forehead. “Just...make me happy, I guess.”

It was things like _that_ that gave Kravitz pause, made him wonder what he was really getting into. But then Taako leaned in and kissed his neck, ran his hands up and into his hair, and he forgot it all.

 

* * *

 

And then one day Taako called, and his voice was a little thin and he was a little too self-effacing for Kravitz to be comfortable with. He went over, found him pacing in the living room.

“Are you--”

“Listen. _Listen._ I, um. Well, alright. How are you, how's your day been, how are the dead people?”

“They're dead. Taako, what's wrong?”

“I just, um. I gotta know, I guess.” Taako put his hands on either hip and stared resolutely at the floor between them. “Are you...bored? With me?”

“What?”

“We never fight, except for about the one thing.”

“ _You cannot_ take things from the morgue, it's a _flagrant_ violation of HIPPA--”

“And I _said_ I was _sorry_ , but that man's last name was _Assmann_ and if I didn't show my sister I would have literally _died_ \--”

“Taako. What is this about?”

Taako laughed. Kravitz didn't like the sound. “You know, Magnus and Julia have been together for like _six years?_ And they moved here and everything changed and now they're both just... _fuckin'_ miserable. I can't really find a _reason_ for it. And I was cooking last night and I was thinking, which like, I shouldn't do those two things at the same time, but I was thinking.” He looked up. “I couldn't find a reason for you to stay with me forever.”

Kravitz stared. “What?”

“I mean, what's so great about...about this? I won't sleep with you, I work every single night, you're a _doctor_ and I can make homemade pasta--”

“Stop it.”

“No, I _won't._ I won't stop. I won't until...until you tell me something good. I need to hear it from you.”

“You want...validation? For us?”

Taako nodded. “Yeah.”

Kravitz sighed. “Okay. Okay, validation for us.” He stepped closer. “How about how you make me breakfast in bed?”

“A monkey could do that.”

“But a monkey doesn't. _You_ do. Every morning we're together. You make me bacon and eggs. And I love it.” Kravtiz took his hands. “You tell me what you want, and you know _exactly_ what you like.” Taako helped him close the difference. “And you've got good taste, if I do say so myself?”

Taako laughed. “Yeah, uh, I guess I do.”

“And you know? So do I.”

Taako looked up. “Do you?”

“Yeah.” Kravitz tipped his chin up and kissed him. “I really, _really_ do.”

They stood for a long time, holding each other, kissing and murmuring soft things. Eventually Taako reached up and held Kravitz's face in his hands.

“Sometimes I, um. I lose the big picture, you know? I don't want to lose you, because you're the best guy I've _ever_ been with. Like, _ever._ Okay? You treat me like a freaking human being, and you actually like my sister.”

“I think Lup is lovely.”

“Alright, she's not here, cool your jets.” Kravitz laughed and Taako smiled. “I'm sorry,” he said. “I didn't mean to get all weird.”

“Hey, if it means I get to say nice things about you, get weird whenever you want.”

Taako raised a brow. “Oh yeah?”

“Anytime, babe.”

“So if I wanted to...get weird right now. You'd be down for that?”

“You want to have another crisis? Because I think one a day is okay to start.”

“I'm making _sexual innuendos_ , sweetheart. Please pick up what I'm puttin' down.”

“Oh.” Then, “ _Oh._ You want to...”

“Yeah. I think I do.”

“We don't have to,” Kravitz said quickly.

“I want to,” Taako said, and kissed him. “Do y--”

“ _Absolutely_.” Kravitz surged forward, lifted him up, and Taako threw his head back and _howled_ with laughter.

“Alright good lookin'. Show me whatcha got.”

 

* * *

 

After that, it was easy to go to bed. Taako was confident, bold, everything Kravitz was looking for. It made him more affectionate in public, made him quick to kiss and quick to smile.

It also, somehow, meant they _bickered_ more, and Kravitz wasn't really sure why. They fought about the most ridiculous things, but what it really came down to was how much they saw each other.

Over the last couple months, it hadn't been very much. Kravitz had gotten ten times busier at work and Taako was really just _always_ busy. On top of that he hardly slept, which was a heavy point of contention between them, and when he did it was poorly and never enough.

They needed _time_ , for just the two of them. Or at the very least, they needed a space.

They hadn't been together for a year yet, but Kravitz, despite the general grumpy aesthetic they were both cultivating, knew one thing quite clearly.

He _wanted_ to be with Taako. He'd wanted to be with him from the moment he'd walked out of that kitchen carrying the chicken Kravitz hadn't finished. He'd wanted him even more one the pier, after the sushi date, and every single day after that first kiss. He wanted Taako to be a part of his life for...forever.

But he needed to take that one step at a time.

So he thought about it, and he figured it out.

And he asked Taako to move in with him.

 

* * *

 

“You want me to...live here. With you.”

“...Yes.”

Taako sat back in his chair. “ _Wow._ That's impressive.”

“What is?”

“Oh, just...you put up with me this long. And now you wanna live with me. I'm impressed.”

Kravitz pinched the bridge of his nose. “Taako, I've told you, I do not _put up_ with you. I love you. I've...I've said it a thousand times.”

“I know.” Taako stared at his hands in his lap. Kravitz could count on one hand the number of times Taako had said he loved him with any sort of force behind it, but Kravitz didn't need to hear it. Not all the time. Maybe...maybe a little more than he currently did, but it was alright. He knew, when Taako made cheesecake and left it in the fridge for him, or when he brought him his favorite meal and pretended someone had ordered too much by accident.

Kravitz was okay with all this.

He just didn't like the parts where Taako couldn't see that this was _working._ That Kravitz loved him and wanted to be with him.

Wanted to live with him and make him an even bigger part of his life.

“Maybe you should think about it longer,” Taako said.

“I've _thought about it_ ,” Kravitz said. “That's _why_ I'm _asking._ ” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “What's so hard for you to understand about this?”

“I don't...I don't know!” Taako stood quickly. “You just—” He groaned. “I'm _scared_ , okay? I'm...I'm really scared of this. I've lived with Lup for _ever_ , I've worked with Lup forever, and I've never had anyone I cared about enough to think about changing even one part of that. You...you and _this_? It scares the _shit_ out of me.”

“ _Why?_ ”

“ _Because I love you_ , okay? I'm...I'm totally crazy, head over _freakin'_ hills in love with you, alright?”

Kravitz swallowed. “That's...you are. You're in love with me.”

“Yeah. I don't say it all the time, okay? Taako's not, like, a genius about his feelings.” He sat back down. “I wanna live with you,” he said. “I wanna come home and see you all the time. But I'm afraid of the day where maybe we don't feel that way anymore, too. That's scares me just as much.”

Kravitz kneeled down, taking Taako's hands into his. “I'm playing for keeps, Taako. Okay? I don't want to stop feeling this way about you. So I'm...just not going to. Do you understand?”

“But what--”

“No.” Kravitz reached up and and held Taako's face in his hands. “I'm _not_ going to.”

Taako smiled. “Okay. _Okay._ Then I...I won't either.”

“...So...”

“So. I will live with you.”

“Really?”

Taako nodded. “Yeah. If it'll get you to _stop crying, oh my god._ ”

“I'm _emotional_ , I'm sorry.”

“Stop, I'm going to have to sleep with you later and take you seriously.” Taako leaned forward and kissed him. “I've gotta tell Lup first.”

“I know.”

“She'll be fine,” he said quickly. “She's got Barold.”

“Aren't they taking it slow?”

“Yeah, I give that one more week before they both lose it on each other.” Taako rested his head on Kravitz's shoulder. “I love you,” he said. “And I'm excited to do this with you.”

Kravitz smiled. “I love you, too.”

Taako pulled back. “Hey, uh, will you say it in the voice?”

“ _No._ ”

“Oh, come on, babe, just once. For me.”

“Absolutely not.”

“ _Please?_ Please, please, please, please, pretty please, please--”

“ _Alright._ ” Kravitz cleared his throat. “I love you,” he said, in the thickest, most vile Cockney accent he could muster.

Taako threw his head back and _laughed._ “Oh, I can't believe I'm gonna spend pretty much forever with you.”

Kravitz grinned. “Feels good to hear you say that.”

Taako looked at him, and he _smiled_ , the most genuine, most _incredible_ smile Kravitz had seen in ages.

“Well, it feels pretty good to say it, babe.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lyrics from "beautiful times" by owl city

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @ weatheredlaw


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